E30 Shifter Question

So the shifter is bent from the factory. I didn't pay attention when I pulled it. Does it bend forward or backward when installed?

you mean the shifter itself, or the linkage?

i don't recall that my shifter or linkage are 'bent' to any extent, except a slight bend at the bottom where the bushing it. that one bends toward the rear of the car, iirc.

Maybe try looking your car up on RealOEM.com for the answer?

Its bent towards the back of the car. Both the e30 and the z3 that replaced mine with were slightly bent.

J

Slippery wrote: Its bent towards the back of the car. Both the e30 and the z3 that replaced mine with were slightly bent. J

OK, that's what I thought. I just did a 5 speed swap and that's the way I installed it, but the shifter is REALLY far back. Like so far back that I can barely get it into 2nd and 4th because the shifter hits the console. When it's in 3rd, it's pretty much dead center. I've never actually driven another 5 speed E30, so I don't know where the shifter is supposed to sit, but that doesn't seem right. There doesn't seem to be any adjustment, so what's going on here?

It sounds like something is wrong - like maybe the selector rod is too short or the carrier is the wrong length (too long). Does the arm come out of the console in the middle of the shifter opening?

The Z3 arm didn't really change the shifter position in my car at all, other than reverse being a bit of a pain to get into, which I've read is common.

In reply to 16vCorey:

It should sit pretty close to dead center at neutral - did you swap from an auto?

If you have a getrag 260 in there now you can get a complete jy shifter setup from an 88+ car and it will just work. If you have a mixed bag of parts from 87 or earlier and so on... you can put the shifter where you want it and cut/weld the selector rod to match so as to save a freezing day at the pick-n-pull looking for the unicorn.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to 16vCorey: It should sit pretty close to dead center at neutral - did you swap from an auto? If you have a getrag 260 in there now you can get a complete jy shifter setup from an 88+ car and it will just work. If you have a mixed bag of parts from 87 or earlier and so on... you can put the shifter where you want it and cut/weld the selector rod to match so as to save a freezing day at the pick-n-pull looking for the unicorn.

Yes, I did swap an auto to a 5 speed. My car is a '90, and I got everything from an '88 at a Pull-A-Part, so it should all be right. Everything was from the same car. Although it did just occur to me that the car was wrecked pretty hard in the left front, so something could have gotten bent. I thought about altering the selector rod, but I'm now kind of thinking of just bending the shifter itself.